Julia Wise

I think it was a bad call.

Zachary Robinson's comment makes the principled case better than I could, and Julia Wise puts it more succinctly: Don't hire someone with a fraud conviction for a finance or philanthropy role.

So I'll add only the practical one, which I don't think has been talked about.

It's just not worth the hassle.

Brief the people closest to it before you go wide, so the first time they hear it isn't the same moment everyone else does.

For comparison, as far as I can tell, Manafund's advance notice consisted of forwarding the announcement on the Wednesday and Thursday before a Friday publication.

Julia Wise says her team got an FYI about sixteen hours before the post went up.

Austin thinks it was more like twenty-four.

Thank you to the AI safety people.

By Julia Wise.

Published on September 28, 2026.

I was born at the end of the Cold War, unaware of the danger we were emerging from.